Poor Laws

In 1601, the Poor Relief Act charged parishes with collecting poor rates (taxes) in order to run local relief programs. The Settlement Act of 1662 was the first to call for the creation of workhouses, where paupers and their families could be fed and sheltered in return for labor.

So when, in 1832, the British Parliament formed a commission to assess the state of what would become known as the Old Poor Law, they were reviewing policies put into place over the past two hundred years. The commission’s findings led to a few key changes implemented by the consequent 1834 Poor Relief Act:

With a couple of exceptions, relief to able-bodied citizens was to be given in the workhouse, or not at all

Parishes were regrouped for the purpose of workhouse efficiency

Poor relief became a centralized endeavor instead of remaining local

Workhouse conditions should be ‘less eligible’ than those of the lowest laboring class – this was part of the ‘workhouse test,’ which the commissioners claimed would separate the deserving poor and the undeserving poor: anyone willing to go to the workhouse was undeserving, as they evidently lacked the motivation to pick themselves up from poverty

Workhouses

Section under construction.

After the 1834 Poor Relief Act, workhouses began to multiply. People were encouraged to check themselves into the workhouse if they were in need of parish aid. Parents would check their families in, though once in the workhouse, they would be separated by age and sex. They could likewise check out of the workhouse, but if the parent checked out, the children were automatically checked out as well. This policy was set in place to avoid parents abandoning their children in the workhouses.

Rules of Aylesbury Workhouse, 1831. Click for a larger image.

The Settlement Act that followed the 1834 Poor Relief Act was created for the benefit of parishes. It regulated what made people parish "citizens," and therefore - if they were impoverished - the responsibility of the parish. While it was previously the case that a child born belonged to its father's parish (or mother's, if there was no father), under the new act, a child belonged to the parish in which he was born. This led to parishes actively seeking to keep impoverished expectant mothers out of their sectors, lest they be - as Mr. Bumble and Mrs. Corney are in Oliver Twist - left to deal with another mouth to feed.

Children were raised until the age of six at a “baby farm,” typically located on the outskirts of Greater London. These baby farms tended to be private institutions employed by parishes. The children were returned to the city at six-years-old, where they were were given at least three hours of education a day, learning reading, writing, and math, as well as “the principles of the Christian religion.”

Work ranged from stitching and laundry to stone-breaking and corn-grinding, assigned based on ability. The tasks set in workhouses were often the same tasks given to prisoners. Oliver (in the novel) was instructed to "pick oakum," which meant stripping old ropes from ships so that the fibers might be recycled. As you can see in the image to the right, this was also a job given to those in prison, where (according to Henry Mayhew's accounts in The Criminal Prisons of London,...") stripping two pounds per day was considered typical, and stripping three to six pounds was expected of those sentenced to hard labor.

Oakum picking in a prison, from Henry Mayhew and John Binny's "The Criminal Prisons of London, and Scenes of Prison Life" (1864).

Child Labor

Oliver Twist was published in 1836, three years after the Factories Act of 1833 was passed in England. The act, while it put limitations of children’s work hours, was only the first step toward bettering the situation of England’s youth, and not until 1933 did Parliament pass the Children and Young Persons Act, which laid down the current restrictions on child labor.

At this point, children were employed in many industries, including textile factories and coal mines. Child laborers were often sold to the owners of these factories or mines by their parents, who could not afford to care for them. Children who were not sold off worked to help support their families, and typically had days just as long as their parents, although they were paid less for their work. The long hours spent in mines or on the factory floor left little time for schooling, and as a result a huge percentage of England’s children were under-educated, unable to read or write.Children were an important resource for Victorian industry. In 1835, almost sixteen percent of the textile workforce was comprised of children under twelve. The percentage of children under eighteen in that year was as high as forty-seven percent in certain specific industries, such as flax and cotton.At the time Oliver Twist was written, child laborer was a point of contention in England. The testimonies reproduced here were part of a 1930s parliamentary attempt to improve labor situations for children. Leading this cause were Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper and Michael Sandler.